


Racing My Way Into Your Heart

by Stumbling-While-Balancing (Rellanka)



Series: Keith's Birthday Fic Celebration [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Hoverbike Racing, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-25
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-08-07 05:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16402568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Stumbling-While-Balancing
Summary: “Scared, Griffin?” Keith asked teasingly, looking frustratingly beautiful in the sunlight that lit the garage.“It’s not a sign of cowardice to be a little scared whenever they see you near a hoverbike, Kogane. Didn’t you used to throw these things off cliffs?” James returned, turning to mirror Keith’s pose while smirking back at him.





	Racing My Way Into Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Ironically, this is mostly based of a prompt for Jaith week that I missed, so better late than never I guess?

James hesitated in front of the craft that Keith had just presented to him, even while Keith smirked at him while leaning against an almost identical craft. 

 

“Scared, Griffin?” Keith asked teasingly, looking frustratingly beautiful in the sunlight that lit the garage.

 

“It’s not a sign of cowardice to be a little scared whenever they see you near a hoverbike, Kogane. Didn’t you used to throw these things off cliffs?” James returned, turning to mirror Keith’s pose while smirking back at him.

 

Keith shrugged back at him, “Had to learn the dive that Shiro taught me somehow, didn’t I? Besides, I really only wrecked once before getting the hang of it.”

 

Only wrecked once, James thought with perfect dryness, a slight edge of lingering hysteria to his thoughts at Keith’s nonchalance over one of the scariest days of James’ life. Thinking back to it, he wasn’t sure who was most angry at Shirogane for showing Keith that move in the first place: the higher ups, James (who wasn’t even able to show his anger openly as he wasn’t even counted among Keith’s friends at the time), or Shiro himself, who spent the hospital visit and Keith’s subsequent recovery practically glued to Keith’s side. To the extent that even Keith, who openly adored Shiro more than just about anything else in the world, was annoyed by Shiro’s hovering. 

 

If there was anything good that James could take from that incident (and there wasn’t much, honestly) it was that it had accomplished two things: it had gotten James to finally admit to himself that he had feelings for Keith, ones very different from the dislike he had pretended to feel previously. And to admit that he needed to start showing it while he still had the chance. 

 

He and Keith had been working on their relationship, had even almost been friends, until the Kerberos mission Garrison deciding to blame Shiro for the loss of the Kerberos mission and Keith’s subsequent explosion of protective rage over it. There was very little that James could say could calm Keith down in those days, and any ground he might have gained in his attempts was lost when the Garrison made one of the training sims into a Kerberos rescue mission. (Lost along with Keith’s presence in the Garrison.)

 

If James didn’t know better by now then he would probably still feel jealous over the depth to which Keith cared about Shiro. But he had learned years ago, mostly through observation of others’ efforts, that trying to get between the two of them was a fruitless endeavor, one that only left failure and frustration in its wake. He’d long ago resigned himself to simply knowing that they were very close, but that Keith was telling the truth when he said that there bond wasn’t romantic. Maybe in another universe it would have been, but in this one Keith was hopefully going to be James’; and if he was, then James was going to keep him forever, if he could.

 

A pointed cough broke James from his thoughts, and he looked at Keith who was currently raising an eyebrow at him. 

 

“Deep thoughts?” Keith asked with a hint of humor. 

 

James snorted, “Just thinking that after reminding me of **that** , you’re going to need some really great incentive to get me to go out racing on one of these things with you.”

 

Keith looked out of the open garage door consideringly, his cheeks growing a little red for some reason, obviously gathering his courage for what he was going to say next. James cocked an eyebrow, but settled more firmly into his position against the bike. That was interesting.

 

“A kiss.” Keith finally said, his voice soft.

 

“What?” James asked. Even though he’d been hoping that it would be something like that, he could **not** have heard that right. While he and Keith had been mutually flirting with one another for a while, and while James hoped it was heading in a direction where he would finally be able to call Keith his boyfriend, neither of them had actually taken the first step beyond flirtation yet. He never thought that Keith, who found it hard to let people in, let alone approach them, would be the one to take that step.

 

But the look on Keith’s face made it obvious that it was actually possible that Keith had said it. Giddy hope began to fill James, and he resisted the urge to do something monumentally stupid, like fist pump or something. 

 

“We’ll race to the tallest mountain. If you manage to beat me, I’ll kiss you.” Keith’s cheeks were definitely red now, not that James could talk (his were, too), but his voice was firm. 

 

Most people wouldn’t think he was capable of it, but Keith looked awfully cute standing there, saying what he was even as it obviously flustered him. It made James look forward to the other cute expressions he could draw out of Keith in the future. I wonder if he would let me kiss his adorable ears, he mused, besotted and unashamed of it. Even they were red, and it was cute.

 

“Well,” James said, finally coming back to himself, smile feeling like it was splitting his face in two. “I’ll take that challenge, then.”

 

And not even caring that it was probably cheating, James grabbed his helmet, strapped it on and climbed onto and started the bike faster than he had probably done anything else in his life, sending it racing into the desert with Keith a few seconds behind him. 

 

***

 

He was pretty sure that Keith still let him win in the end, but honestly? This was the one time when James honestly didn’t mind.


End file.
